Vivint Thermostat Keeps Changing Temp (3 Cause and 3 Solutions)

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Home » Vivint » Vivint Thermostat Keeps Changing Temp (3 Cause and 3 Solutions)
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Written By Dinu Sri

Dr H. T. D. S. Madusanka is an electronic expert with 10 years of experience, involved in the research and development of SMART HOME systems.

So you love your Vivint thermostat. Because it gives you comfort by providing great air conditioning. The air conditioning makes you feel good and helps you become more productive.

But now comes the problem. Although all of what’s stated above is awesome, it’s really worthless if your thermostat keeps changing the temperature on its own.

We get it. As soon as the temperature becomes ideal, the thermostat malfunction and the room becomes too cold or too hot. Either of which is bad for your mood and comfort.

Here is the good news. If you’re experiencing this problem, then worry no more. Because this is what we’re going to help you solve in this post.

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In total, there are 3 main causes for this problem. In this post, we’ve pointed out all three problems and we’ve explained their solutions in a simple and easy-to-understand manner.

Without further ado, let’s get to it.

Vivint Thermostat Keeps Changing the Temp Causes

There are three reasons. Frozen anticipator, Dirt stuck in the anticipator, and wrong location.

Below, we’re going to cover each of these problems in detail.

1. Frozen anticipator

A fixed frozen anticipator is a pretty common cause for this problem. It happens when the thermostat is being used non-stop for too long.

Anticipators are one of the main components that change the temperature of the air inside the thermostat. Therefore, even if one of them is not working properly, you can expect the thermostat to make changes to temperature on its own.

Now we know that frozen anticipators are one of the common causes of this problem, so the real question is how to unfreeze a frozen anticipator.

Do you know how to do this? Of course, you don’t, otherwise, you probably wouldn’t need or help. Just kidding 🙂

So here is what you’ve got to do. First, you’ve got to open the thermostat. Before you even lay a finger on the thermostat, do this. Go grab a screwdriver.

We’re serious, go right now and read the rest of the post later. We’re waiting for you.

Do you have a screwdriver with you now? Awesome, now we can proceed forward. Here is what you’ve got to do. First, grab the thermostat with the tips of your fingers. Grab the top and bottom of the thermostat, and be sure to be gentle. If you’re not gentle, you risk damaging the thermostat.

Now that you’ve got a gentle hold of the thermostat, push it forward and at the same time lift it upwards. Once the thermostat is off the mount, put it on the ground with the face backward.

Now is the time to use the tool you grabbed earlier. Yes, the screwdriver. Now is the time to start screwing things up (metaphorically speaking).

First, unscrew the uppers screws and then unscrew the bottom ones. It’s important to unscrew the screws in the exact order, otherwise, things may not work.

Now, after successfully unscrewing all four screws, you’ve opened the thermostat. This is what you’ve got to do next. You’ve got to look if any of the anticipators are frozen.

If one or more anticipators are frozen, you’ve got to make them loose by applying just a bit of pressure. Use your fingertips for applying the pressure.

If you didn’t find any frozen anticipator, or if you’ve found and fixed it, look for this problem before putting your thermostat back on.

2. Dirt in the anticipator

You’ve got to look for the dirt in the thermostat. The reason is that dirt can cause the thermostat from working properly or it can make it stop working at all.

Of course, the former is your case. The reason we asked you not to put the pieces of the thermostat back together is that if you look for the dirt first, you may save yourself quite some time.

Here is why. Because if you’ve put the pieces of the thermostat back together and have run the thermostat for the next 30 minutes and find out that the problem is still occurring, you’ll waste nearly an hour of your time.

For this reason, it’s better if you check for the dirt first and if you find some then get rid of it right there and then. This won’t take longer any longer than 5-10 minutes.

If you’ve found some dirt on the anticipator, here is what you’ve got to do. You’ve got to clean it completely so the anticipator can work properly.

To clean the anticipator, you’ll need two objects. A bottle of glint and a thin piece of cloth or paper. A piece of cloth is ideal because the paper sometimes isn’t capable of removing the dirt properly.

But make sure it’s thin because the dirt stuck in the small corners and edges of an anticipator won’t get with a thick piece of cloth.

After you’ve cleaned the dirt from all the anticipators, it’s time to check for the last cause. This is what we’re going to discuss in the next section.

3. Change location

Although the two solutions methods above will most likely solve your problem. But, if you’ve tried them both and still your thermostat keeps changing temperature, there is one solution left.

After you’ve tried this one, your thermostat is guaranteed to work. If it still doesn’t work, it means that the anticipators are damaged, therefore you’ll need to replace them with new ones.

Anyway, let’s get back to our main point. Let’s talk about this last solution. This solution involves changing the location of your thermostat.

There are multiple reasons why the location can impact the performance of the thermostat. We’re not going to get into the details of all the why’s.

Instead, here is what we’re going to do. We’re going to tell you the solution directly. We’re going to tell you what you’ve got to do when choosing an ideal location for your thermostat.

There are three factors to consider when choosing an ideal location for your thermostat. Check if your thermostat is exposed to drafts or direct sunlight, or if it’s installed far away from the living areas.

In any of these cases, do the opposite. If it’s installed far from the living area, install it near the living area. If it’s exposed to drafts, make sure it doesn’t stay that way. The same goes for the sunlight, make sure there is no direct sunlight shining on the thermostat.

Conclusion

By reading this post, you’ve become familiar with all three possible causes for the automatic change in the thermostat. Also, you’ve found the solution to each cause as well.

Also, you’ve learned that if none of these solutions work for you, what do you have to do then? We’re going to tell this point again over here, you’ve got to replace the anticipators.

As you can see, by reading this post and applying what you’ve learned from here to your thermostat, you are guaranteed to find a solution to your problem.

We’ve worked hard to find all the tips and explain them in as much detail as possible. We’ve tried our best to simplify the details as much as possible.

Nonetheless, if any point is not clear, don’t hesitate to reach us in the comment section for clarification. We have worked hard on this post and we will feel bad if you haven’t found your solution. Therefore, let us know if something is not clear in the comment sections, we’d love to help.

One last thing we’d like to say before ending this post is if you’ve found this post helpful share it with others. Because the more people benefit from this post, the more we’ll benefit from it.